Young Days
by Yumemi Sayaka
Summary: Probably a series of one shots. What if they had known each other when they were young?
1. What do you want to be when you grow up

AN: After lurking around for like, what seems to be forever, i finally got around to writing a story of mine, characters are based off the anime/manga ghost hunt and as much as i wished that i own them, they belong to Ono Fuyumi. Well except maybe the characters that I made up myself. No flames please, constructive critisim appreciated :)

Premised off their childhood... What if they had met each other as children?

Going on the basis that Noll's name is Kazuya and Gene's is Jin when they were young.

**What do you want to be when you grow up?**

'bbbzzztt….'

A flash of static is shown before what looks like a tatami mat comes blurrily into focus.

"Oh, oh, I think it's on…. maybe" a female voice says.

"Be careful dear, it's hot…" a deep male voice says from somewhere off screen.

"Okay!" answers a young chirpy female voice.

The sounds of cicadas could be heard somewhere off screen in the distance.

The clink of what sounded like porcelain, followed by the sound of water being poured out from a container, probably a teapot.

"Is that it daddy?" said the young female voice.

"Hmmm" answered the male voice. A rustle of fabric... "What are you doing?" The male voice continues.

"I'm trying to get this to work, do you think it's on?" answers the female voice.

All the while, the only thing that blurs in and out of focus is what seems to be the tatami mat.

"I think it's on honey, look the red light is blinking." answered the male voice.

"Oh, haha, so it is..." laughs the female voice sheepishly, before the view is brought up from the tatami mat, focusing to show a veranda with a Japanese garden, including a small koi pond. The sky is a clear blue; it looks like a hot day, the wind chime hanging above the sliding door leading to the veranda sways gently, but not enough to produce any sound.

The soft whirring of a fan somewhere in the room could be heard.

The camera turns around to a low table, revealing a man, probably in his middle to late thirties, sitting cross-legged on the floor at the table with a little girl, that could be no more than probably five or six.

On the table, what looked like various utensils to make tea was spread out, together with a teapot, tea canister, a tray and some teacups.

"Mai chan…" called the female voice in a singsong way.

The little girl, with brunette hair that reaches over her shoulder looked up from the teacups on the table to reveal big brown eyes that twinkled as she smiled at the person holding the camera.

"Hai~"

"What are you doing with daddy?"

"Making tea!" giggles Mai.

The sound of a page being turned is heard somewhere off screen, while the female voice continues her interview with Mai.

"Are you good at making tea?"

Mai turns to her father, who smiles and nods at her before grinning widely back at the camera.

"Yes! Daddy says Mai the best!" Mai replies enthusiastically.

"Hmm~ I see, so what does Mai chan wants to be when she grows up?"

"Hmmm~" Mai puts a little finger to her lips as she looks upward, seemingly thinking hard.

"Do you want to be a tea master? Like daddy?" prompts the female voice.

Mai shakes her head.

"Then do you want to be a music teacher like mommy?" Mai's father asks.

"Hmm~ then what does Mai chan wants to be when she is all grown up?" Mai's mother asks.

Mai's eyes lit up as she grinned widely. Jumping up so that she is no longer sitting on the floor but standing, she looks at someone off screen and away from the camera and declares:

"Mai is going to be K chan's bride when Mai grows up!"

The two adults giggle, as the scoffing sound of a young boy could be heard off screen together with the sound of a page being turned.

"Don't be an idiot." Answers a young male voice.

"Ehhh~ but why? Does K chan not like Mai?" asks Mai as she puffed up her cheeks. The adults giggle again with this exchange.

The camera view leaves Mai for a brief moment to focus on a young boy probably about six or seven reading a book, that looked much too difficult for his age, and which hid his face. All that could be seen was his black hair above the top of the book, as he sat in a chair in the corner of the room reading his book.

"That's not the point, idiot" K answers from behind the book.

"But Mai likes K chan! A lot and a lot" Mai pouted, her voice a little louder than earlier.

"It's not 'a lot and a lot' idiot, it should be 'very much'; anyway, that's something that's too far away for you to decide now, there are too many uncertain variables in place to determine if that outcome is even possible" sighs K as he flips another page of his book.

The giggling adults are joined by the giggling sound of another young male voice, which could be heard from the other corner of the room. If it wasn't because K didn't seem to be the one giggling, one would have naturally thought that the sound originated from K, the voice sounding very similar to his own, as the camera moved between K and Mai.

"Hnnn~" answered Mai, her brows furrowed at the difficult words that K had just said, apparently her earlier question and declaration forgotten.

"What's varrable? And deturmun?" Mai asks.

The other young male voice giggled even harder.

"Mai chan, you are missing the point here" answered the other young male voice that did not belong to K.

"Shut up Jin" K said. The camera shifts to the other side of the room, to a boy with similar black hair, lying on his side with his back facing the camera, presumably reading a book, which was lying on the floor.

Jin just ignored K, laughed and said, "It's 'variable' and 'determine'. He just means that there are lot of things that may change and it's not decided if you will be his bride for sure"

"Heeeh~ then doesn't K chan just have to make sure that no matter what those things that may change are, that he makes Mai his bride?"

Jin laughs off screen as the camera focuses back on a confused looking Mai.

K just sighs "I'm not going to comment on something so uncertain…"

"Hmmph… that means you don't want Mai as your bride!" Mai pouts putting her hands on her hips.

"If it's like that, Mai isn't going to make you any more tea! K chan you idiot! K chan can make his own tea from now on!" Mai declares.

Without looking up from his book while flipping the page again, K sighs for what seemed like the umpteenth time.

"First off all, it's not Mai that makes the tea, it's Oji chan, so your threat is not valid."

"Hmmph" pouts Mai as she sits back on the floor with her back facing K's direction.

Jin let's out a laugh "Mai chan, you are still missing the point here"

The camera focuses on Mai's confused face. "Huh?"

"He never said that he didn't like Mai chan or that he would not make Mai chan his bride now did he?" laughs Jin.

"Jin!" K's stern voice is heard as Jin laughs, while a smile is seen cracking on Mai's face.

"Hehe, Jin chan is so smart." Laughs Mai.

"Then why don't you be Jin's bride instead of mine?"

"Oh no, Mai chan you just made him jealous!" laughs Jin.

"Somebody is jealous, somebody is jealous~" Sings Jin, as the sound of something being thrown, probably K's book was being thrown at Jin, and the sound of a Shoji door opening and one pair of footsteps running, and another chasing is heard.

The camera leaves Mai's laughing face to an open Shoji door revealing a hallway and what looked like the book K was reading earlier on the floor, as the two adults kept laughing at what had just transpired.

"Anyway Mai chan, all the best in making your dream come true, ok? " Mai's mother says.

"Hai!" Mai replies with a wide smile.

"bbzzzzt" the screen turns static, and a thin light shoots across the screen, before it goes blank.

* * *

Notes:

1. **Tatami mat** basically something like a mat made out of straw that covers the floors of most traditional Japanese homes.

2. **Koi pond** basically "koi" means carp. Just imagine a traditional Japanese fish pond with carp in it.

3. "**Hai**" basically Japanese version of 'yes', but also used as an acknowledgement, that you heard what a person was telling you, or to indicate that you understand what was spoken to you. Also used in place of "okay".

4. It's not uncommon for young children, especially little girls to refer to themselves in the third person, hence Mai's speech "Mai did this" etc. usually some of them grow out of it, while some may continue using it to a certain age, as it is deemed cute.

5. "**Oji chan**" basically means uncle. Not necessarily related. Children are usually taught to refer to a grown man as 'uncle', e.g. like calling their father's friend 'uncle'. Although it would be considered rude to call a teenager 'uncle' so in that case the teenager is referred to as 'big brother' or 'onii san/chan'. Not to be confused with "oji**i** san/chan" which means grandfather.

6. **Shoji door** basically paper sliding door, commonly seen in traditional Japanese households.

ノート

麻衣は五歳、和也はあの同じの年の九月が六歳にもすぐなります。

夏はそろそろ終わります。このストーリは七月の二週間ぐらいのはなしです。

-「夢見サヤか」-


	2. Snow

AN: Still trying to get used to FF... Thank you to those who were kind enough to drop me a review :) hope that you will enjoy this one shot as well! Constructive criticism welcomed.

Disclaimer: Again, I don't own ghost hunt. Ono Fuyumi does, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

**Snow**

It was snowing.

The flakes were falling gently from the sky enveloping everything it touched in a thin blanket of white.

A small little hand reached out to catch the flakes as they fell.

"It's cold…" said the owner of the hand in a quiet voice to no one in particular; a little girl of about the age of four or five with brunette hair that reached just over her shoulder. Her big brown eyes wet and moist, it seemed that she must have been crying earlier and stopped to stare at the falling snow in wonder.

Her breath coming out in wisps of smoke as she continued to try to catch the snow flakes with her little hands; her eyes gazing upwards to the sky, a small smile starting to form on her little lips.

"Hey" a young male voice calls out to the little girl.

The little girl as if woken from a trance, broke her gaze from the sky and turned towards the owner of the voice.

"What are you doing out here?" asks the owner of the voice, a little boy, probably about the age of five or six.

"Watching the snow?" says the little girl uncertainly, tilting her head slightly to the side as the boy slowly closed the distance between them to stand next to her.

The little girl looks up at the boy, who is slightly taller than her, with dark hair and blue eyes.

"You are going to catch a cold, where is your mother?" the young boy chides her as he removes his green scarf and wraps it around the little girl's neck.

She shakes her head, "don't know… puppy chan brought me here…" the little girl's eyes started to water up.

"So… you are lost…." The little boy answers with a sigh.

"Hey, don't cry" he soothes as the tears trickled down the little girl's face. Removing one of his mittens, which were the same colour as his scarf, he wipes her tears away.

"You are cold" he frowns, he averts his eyes from her face to look at her hands, taking them in his hands he glanced at the little girl.

"You are going to get frost bite," he chides again, as he takes both her hands and starts breathing on them, his breath coming out as wisps of smoke.

The little girl stops crying as she watches him warm her hands.

"It's warm," she says, a small smile forming on her lips.

"Of course it is" he replies and puts on his mitten that he had took off on her hand, taking hold of her un-gloved hand with his, he puts both their hands into his coat pocket.

"Where was the last time you saw your mother?" he asks the little girl.

"Hmmmm~ Mama was at the shop, she told Mai that she will get Mai something warm to drink while we wait for daddy" answers Mai with a tilt of her head, her mitten-ed hand at the corner of her mouth.

"Then what did you do as your mother was getting the drinks?"

"Mama asked Mai to stand next to her as she took the little bag out of her big bag"

"And you obviously did not listen to your mother" sighs the boy.

"Mai did!" pouts the little girl. "But…"

"But?" the boy prompts as he starts walking with Mai in tow.

"Mai saw puppy chan outside the shop."

The boy turned his head and looked at the little girl with a raised eyebrow.

"And what does that have to do with you not listening to your mother?"

"But, but, Mai thought it was cold and wanted to bring puppy chan into the shop to warm puppy chan up, but when Mai went near puppy chan, puppy chan ran away"

"And I'm guessing you followed it?" the boy said as he stopped walking to turn and look at the little girl walking with him.

The little girl called Mai just nods her head.

With a sigh and a shake of his head the boy said "and then?"

"Puppy chan suddenly disappeared, and Mai was all alone here…" Mai's big brown eyes started to tear up again.

"Don't cry" the boy quickly says, his voice sounding a little frantic. "If it's a shop that sells drinks, there is one near here; I don't think you've gotten too far from your mother." He said as he resumed their walking.

"Kazuya kun!" a male voice could be heard calling out a little way ahead.

"Kazuya kun!" the male voice repeats in a strict voice as the owner of the said voice caught sight of the little boy.

"Ojii chan…" winced Kazuya, as an elderly man who looked to be about in his late sixties, his greying hair hidden under a hat and with round-rimmed glasses briskly approached him. Ojii chan, or rather Grandpa didn't look too happy and his stern face looked even sterner, if that was even possible.

As Kazuya's grandfather walked up to the two children, a voice similar to Kazuya said "see I told you that you didn't need to worry jii chan, he's right at the park, just like he told me."

"I also told you I was on my way back Jin, did you tell ojii chan that?" Kazuya replied with a scowl as a boy that looked exactly like his mirror image caught up with grandpa.

"I did, but he didn't believe me when I said I was talking to you" answers Jin, his blue eyes wide, as if to portray his innocence.

"Kazuya kun, you know better than to walk around like that, we already need to search for Kei kun's daughter, and you getting lost as well… oh?" as grandpa admonished Kazuya he suddenly noticed the little girl hiding shyly behind Kazuya and stopped in surprise.

"You really found her?" Grandpa said, his eyes glancing at Kazuya for a while before turning back to the little girl. Kazuya just gave his grandfather a confused look as grandpa crouched down so that he was at the eye level of the little girl; he spoke gently to her "Are you Mai chan?"

Kazuya could feel Mai's hand grip his tightly in his coat pocket as she continued to hide behind him.

"Yea, her name is Mai, she told me she last saw her mother at the store, so I was bringing her back there" Kazuya answered for her. "You know her ojii chan?" Kazuya asks.

Grandpa turned his gaze to Kazuya and nods, "remember that I told you we were going to meet Kei kun and his family? Well, while he was waiting for us, his wife went to get something warm to drink, and as she was paying she said thier daughter wandered off and got lost. They were frantic"

Kazuya just nods as Jin peered curiously at the little girl from behind grandpa's coat.

"Come, let's get Mai chan back to her parents and all of you warmed up back at the house" Grandpa says as he takes Jin's hand in one hand and Kazuya's free hand in the other.

"Mai chan!" a woman's voice exclaimed as grandpa and the children neared the shops.

"Mama!" cried the little girl as she was scooped up into her mother's warm embrace. The mother, a pretty brunette with brown eyes who seemed to be in her early to mid thirties, was in tears as she hugged her little girl tightly.

"Don't you dare do that to mama again" she admonishes in a quiet voice.

It was easy to see that Mai took mostly after her mother, and would grow up to be as beautiful as her mother, if not more.

"There, there Tomoe san, it's alright, Sensei found her" said a relieved sounding male voice belonging to a man who looked to be in his mid to late thirties with black hair and kind brown eyes, as he put his hand on Tomoe's shoulder, the other hand gently ruffling up Mai's hair.

"You really gave us quite a scare there Mai chan, don't do that again" he admonished the little girl in a strict but soft voice.

"Hai, sorry," murmured Mai in her mother's embrace.

"Well it's thanks to Kazuya kun finding her actually" sensei replied, the two boys still holding on to each of his hands.

"Oh? They were twins?" exclaimed the man in surprise. "Hello there, I didn't see you earlier" said the man as he crouched down to the boys level.

"Ermm, actually you saw me earlier, but not him" said the boy as his head gestured to his twin.

"Ah, my bad Jin kun" laughs the man as his gaze turned toward the other twin.

"There now, introduce yourself," Grandpa says with a gentle tug of his hand.

"My name is Himura Kazuya, nice to meet you" says the little boy with a slight bow, his eyes seemed more interested in watching Mai who was still in her mother's tight embrace.

"Taniyama Kei, nice to meet you too, Kazuya kun" smiled the man.

"Kei kun, I think it would be advisable for us to get out of this snow and back to the house to warm up, let me get a taxi" grandpa says as he turned his eyes to the road trying to spot a taxi he could hail.

"Ah sure, it's a good thing that we found Mai chan fairly quickly" Kei says as he tilted his face up from his position to look at his sensei.

"I recall you saying that your brother had gone to the park to check if she was there right?" Kei asks as he faced Jin, who replied with a nod.

"My brother said he saw a little girl walking in the direction of the park alone, and he was worried that she might have been lost, so he went off on his own to get her, and told me to tell jii chan"

Sensei or rather grandpa merely shook his head. "Sometimes I wonder how they do that," he murmured.

"You didn't tell me that you knew the people looking for the girl," Kazuya said as he glared at Jin.

"Well you didn't ask" Jin replied while sticking his tongue out at his brother.

"But I did ask them to wait, and that you would bring the little girl you found here." Jin proclaimed. Kazuya merely scowled and looked away from Jin just as Tomoe had finally calmed down, freeing Mai from her embrace she put the little girl back on her feet.

"Ahh~ Mai chan, you gave mama a huge scare back there… eh..? Whose scarf is that? And you have a mitten on?" Tomoe seemed perplexed at her daughter's extra attire, looking at her daughter's own scarf and mittens, which were in her hands.

Pointing to Kazuya with her un-gloved hand, "He warmed Mai up and lent them to Mai" Mai said with a little smile towards Kazuya's direction. Kazuya blushed and averted his gaze, seemingly finding his sneakers suddenly interesting.

"Kazuya kun is it?"

Kazuya looked up to find a smiling Tomoe crouching in front of him and nodded.

"Thank you for finding Mai chan… Mai chan, here, come say thank you to Kazuya kun too" Tomoe gestured for Mai to come closer.

Taking her red scarf and matching mittens from her mother's hand, Mai approached Kazuya, with a big smile plastered on her face and all traces of tears gone, she wrapped her scarf around his neck and placed her mitten on his un-gloved hand and the other on her hand, "Thank you for finding me Kazuya chan."

* * *

Notes:

1. "**puppy chan**" basically Mai is meaning the puppy, in Japanese the word "chan" is added behind, a name sort of to say Mr puppy instead of just puppy. In Japanese "ワンコちゃん" (Wanko chan). "Chan" has a similar usage to "san", "kun" etc.

2. It's not uncommon for young children, especially little girls to refer to themselves in the third person, hence Mai's speech "Mama asked Mai to wait" etc. usually some of them grow out of it, while some may continue using it to a certain age, as it is deemed cute.

3. "**Ojii chan**" basically grandpa. "jii chan" is basically the shorter version of ojii chan, think of it as 'gramps', if you will. Not to be confused with "oji chan" which has one "i" less and means 'uncle'. Similar to uncle from the first chapter, grandpa need not necessarily be related.

4. "**Sensei**" basically 'master', sometimes also used to mean, teacher, doctor, lawyer as it is used for someone in an honourable profession. In this case, it's being used to refer to the term "master".

5. "**Hai**" basically Japanese version of 'yes', but also used as an acknowledgement, that you heard what a person was telling you, or to indicate that you understand what was spoken to you. Also used in place of "okay".

ノート

麻衣と和也はここに始めて会った。十二月の一週間ぐらい、冬。

麻衣はこれから四歳いだけ、和也は五歳。

和也は幼稚園です、でも来年の春は小学校一年始めます。

-「夢見サヤか」-


End file.
